Digvijay agrees to withdraw SC case on SSP height: Modi
GANDHINAGAR/RAJKOT: All the bottlenecks for raising the height of the Narmada dam to 100 metres have been removed by successful intervention of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a high level meeting attended by the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Following the prime minister's intervention, MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh assured to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court pertaining to the height of the dam.  This would pave the way for speedy and time-bound implementation of the sardar sarovar project according to Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
 Modi, who flew to Rajkot from Delhi on Thursday, said that the meeting between him and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart was held at the prime minister's residence last evening. He said that Singh had assured that MP would complete the work of rehabilitation of the project affected people (PAP) in a time bound manner. In the meeting of R and R scheduled on february 8, the MP government would submit a report giving a complete undertaking for completing the rehabilitation process so that the height of the dam could be raised to 100 m.  In the meeting with the prime minister, it was also
decided that all concerned states would ensure time bound implementation of the decision taken in consonance with the Supreme Court verdict and in the subsequent meeting of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) for raising the height of the dam.
It may be recalled that despite the Supreme Court verdict and subsequent decisions taken in the meeting of the NCA, the construction of the Narmada project was hampered due to one or the other ticklish issue. Modi had sought the intervention of the prime minister a few days ago and submitted a memorandum expressing the concern of the people of Gujarat. He had also requested the prime minister to arrange a joint meeting of chief ministers of both the states and sort out all issues giving audience to them as desired by the people. Last evening's meeting was also attended by Union irrigation minister, NCA chairman and Central water resources secretary, MP finance minister, Union Cabinet secretary, Union forest and environment joint secretary, principal secretary to the PM Brijesh Misra, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) chairman Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, state chief secretary G Subba Rao, SSNNL vice-chairman V B Buch, its managing director K C Kapur and Narmada water resources secretary N B Desai. The prime minister also asked the Central environment ministry to conduct the sub-committee meeting of environment early in February to accord environment clearance in a phased manner.